Ward of Wyvern: A dragon shifter fantasy (The Dragon Mage Book 1)

by LJ Andrews

  “What is it?”

  “This.” Jade wiped away a glistening tear and pointed to a gold emblem in the quilt. An emblem wholly similar to the seal across my back. Slight differences, of course. It wasn’t Jade’s seal, but there were markings and abstract symbols in the same shape. Jade looked to me. “This is the family of jade’s seal—formed after my grandparents’ union. It’s surrounded by the same markings, Teagan. It’s a seal for the mage. It must be. My family. Your family, we were . . . always connected. It’s different, too though, look at these symbols.” She pointed to wispy ribbons of gold that looked a lot like dragon heads. “It’s beautiful, but there are these different markings. Not only mage, but mage and dragon symbols entwined. It’s unique and I don’t understand it entirely, but . . . it’s as if you’ve always been connected to my people.”

  True enough, the seal had both languages. Someone wanted me to know where I belonged. Well, then, where were they?

  “What are you saying?” Liz asked, dabbing her nose with a tissue. “I don’t understand what you’re talking about. Mage? No, no they’re dead. They’re dark magic.”

  “Dark magic?”

  She nodded. “Most spell casters, like me, descend from mage lines. We know the histories. Mages turned to ondska, dark magic.”

  I rubbed the sides of my head. Her histories were wrong, they had to be. Mini wasn’t dark, but she spoke of dark mages. Had my parents been ones who practiced this ondska magic? They didn’t sound caring in the letter. They sounded obsessed with power.

  “I can’t explain everything, Aunt Liz,” I said. “Something did happen when I went to Wyvern Willows, and something is still happening. We need to go, but may I take these things?”

  “Teagan, no,” she pleaded. “We need to work this out. I can’t just tell you these things and then you leave.”

  “We will talk soon,” I said wrapping one arm around her shoulders and squeezing tightly. “I just can’t stay, or I will be in trouble, and you’ll have to follow through on your threat to toss me in the rune cells.”

  “Tell me what you’re thinking. You must believe me when I say I did everything because I loved you, I still do. You are my son in every way that matters.”

  I rubbed her back, feeling my frustration ebb into oblivion, and now I feared I might cry along with her. “I love you too. You’re my mom. You are. Nothing will ever change that. This is a lot and I think I need to process, okay?”

  Liz nodded, her chin crinkled in emotion as she kissed my cheek. “I hope you can forgive me. Please call me when you get back. I love you. So much.”

  “Love you too,” I whispered.

  Jade was bold, and I loved it, when she hugged Aunt Liz tightly. Liz relaxed in Jade’s embrace.

  Once we were back in the car, I slumped into the seat, my knuckles pulling white as I clutched the steering wheel.

  “Teagan.” Jade reached a hand for my leg. “Your aunt was telling you the truth. Every word, I sensed her goodness just as the letter said. She did what she knew to protect you. Don’t be angry with her.”

  I started the car, jaw pulsing. “I am angry. Everything about me is a lie, Jade. Am I so stupid no one can trust me with the truth? Am I too unpredictable, or what? All I want is the truth. From Eisha, from Sapphire, Mini, from my family! Everyone lies.”

  “I’ve never lied to you,” Jade whispered, her fingertips tracing the armor.

  Taking a deep breath, I met her eye and smiled. “No, you haven’t lied to me. You are the only sane place in this entire mess.”

  “Your aunt did what she thought was best. She couldn’t have known who you would become. She loves you.”

  “She’s not my aunt.” My voice cracked, but I quickly cleared my throat to hide it.

  “Teagan . . .” Jade began, but stopped when I met her eye.

  “No, she’s not. I’m angry, I’ll probably be upset for a long time, but whoever wrote that letter is not my mother, or my father. I mean it when I say Liz isn’t my aunt—that woman inside that house is my mother.”

  Jade smiled, her emerald eyes glistened with steaming tears when she kissed my cheek. With Jade close, we sped back toward Wyvern Willows. Answers were there. We just had to find them.

  Chapter 25

  A ball of heat festered in the pit of my stomach. As a kid, I’d cried to Aunt Liz how lonely the world seemed. The guilds, the packs, they all used defectives as punching bags or targets. Humans shunned magic, afraid of its power and what might become of them should the alliances of safety between mortals and magis end.

  Accepted nowhere.

  The nearer we came to Wyvern Willows, the angrier I became. She’d never told me my history, simply watched me hurt while answers lived in a shoebox.

  Then again, I loved her even more for her reasons.

  She hid the truth—the truth that I was callously abandoned—to keep me with the belief I’d always been loved. She was incredible for taking in a child under such odd circumstances.

  My love for the woman would smother out the anger, and somehow I’d find a way to explain all this to her. For now, I was grateful for the space. The time to think.

  Jade hadn’t said anything for a long time. The prickle of unease tingled across my arms. I wanted to stop the car—I didn’t want to return to Wyvern Willows yet. We’d get scolded, no doubt, like we were children. Jade was two hundred, and I was . . . well, who knew how old I truly was. Over eighteen for sure. I wanted another hour, maybe two, of only us.

  “Is something bothering you?” I finally asked when the silence thickened.

  Jade gnawed on the inside of her cheek. It wasn’t often Jade didn’t have a smile on her face, she was always calm and patient, but in this moment there wasn’t even a flick of a smile. Her fists even balled in her lap. It wasn’t clear when we’d put so much distance between ourselves after starting so close.

  “I think I know who your parents are. I could be wrong, but if I’m right, I don’t know what it will mean,” she said.

  My grip tightened on the steering wheel. “Who do you think they are?”

  Jade leaned her head against the window and kept quiet.

  “Hey.” I unfurled one of her fists and threaded my fingers in hers. “You can tell me.”

  “That seal on the quilt, I know it’s my family seal. Don’t you remember what I told you about the High Priestess? Eisha told me if you were a jade mage you would have to descend from the High Priestess.”

  “You think she’s my mother?”

  Jade shrugged. “Perhaps no one knew about you. She could have kept your birth a secret. There was a war after all, maybe it was her way of keeping you protected. But if I’m right, that means . . .”

  She didn’t answer, and her fingers tensed in my grip, sending a painful wave of nausea through my middle. Jade was upset, and I absorbed all of it. I pressed the back of her hand to my lips. She closed her eyes, at last a smile in the corner of her mouth.

  “What are you thinking?” I whispered.

  Jade eyed me sympathetically. “If the High Priestess is your mother, from what I’ve read, there’s really only one mage who could be your father. The High Priest.”

  Now I understood her discomfort. The acid boiled in the back of my throat as I stared at the winding, dark asphalt. “The mage who betrayed your family.”

  “I don’t know if my theory is right, and it wouldn’t change how I feel about you,” she hurried to say. I wanted to believe her, but she was right—if the High Priest was my blood, then I came from the man who slaughtered her parents.

  “What you’re saying makes sense. Why else would I be left in a quilt with the seal of your family. I must come from the mages responsible for killing…” I couldn’t finish.

  Jade’s face contorted in her own pain. “Perhaps your mother was hiding you from the High Priest—”

  “Jade, according to Mini, they were vowed together. Who else would the High Priestess be messing around with? Aunt Liz found me eighteen yea
rs ago, to me, sounds like she’s still sleeping with the bad guy.”

  “You could be much older, possibly born during the wars for all we know. Look at Mini, she’s Konrad’s age.” Jade bit her bottom lip. “But even still, if you are the son of the High Priest and Priestess, why would they abandon you? I’d think they would train you.”

  “Probably wanted me out of the way for a second, then planned to take me back and turn me to the dark side.”

  Jade frowned. “But Liz never returned you. That’s what is bothering me. If they are these wicked mages, odds are she’d be dead for disobeying. They’d be able to find her and you.”

  My chest tightened. More questions. More unknowns. I smacked the steering wheel. “It doesn’t matter. If they are my parents, if they’re dark mages, I’ll fight them. They’re nothing to me. And if they tried to hurt you, I’d kill them. No question.”

  Jade wiped a tear off her cheek, and leaned over the console. “I know you would, but it still breaks my heart. If I’m right, you are your own parents’ enemy. No matter who they are, I still ache for you.”

  No more waiting. I pulled over to the side of the road and reached for her. My brow to hers, I whispered, “Don’t ache for me. Don’t hurt over this, Jade. Not for another second. I will always choose you, no matter what.”

  Jade’s eyes brightened, her voice softer than the breeze. “Is it just the bond that what makes you say those things?”

  My thumb followed the curve of her lip. I shook my head. “Not a chance. You are more than a bond to me. I love you, Jade.”

  I’d never said the words to anyone but Liz. My pulse quickened, a strange kind of panic rose in my chest as I waited for her reaction.

  Jade’s breath shuddered, and any distance between us became obsolete. When she pressed her lips against mine, her hot tears soaked my face. Jade had a strong grip on the back of my head when I pulled her from her seat, straddling her on my lap. She sighed against me, hands on my chest, in my hair; me, holding her hips, keeping her close. A patient kiss. A frenzied moment.

  Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to take a little more time getting back.

  ***

  The reform house was dark when we pulled up along the drive. Jade studied the windows and stepped out of the car. The air had a chill to it that wasn’t there before.

  I stepped to Jade’s side and wrapped my arm around her waist, sighing. “We need to face them eventually, right?”

  Taking my hand in confidence, she nodded and pulled me toward the door. The moment we stepped onto the porch the lights blinded us and the door practically ripped off its hinges. Sapphire fumed in the doorway, but said nothing, simply pointed inside the house. Jade kept her chin high and marched past regally, though I found myself shifting away from Sapphire’s black gaze.

  “Sit down,” he growled after slamming the door.

  “What do you think you were doing?” Mini’s shrill voice screamed from across the living room. I ducked when she tossed her knife—yes, her knife—at my head.

  All my anger from the night built like a cancer in my chest. I ripped the knife from where it’d stabbed the wall and pulsed the rage into the silver. Mini gaped when the metals crumbled under my touch. I didn’t know I could do it, but it brought a bit of pleasure when her eyes flashed with malice. I was positive we were about to duel.

  Tonight, I was ready to fight, was ready to unleash the boil of fury, and if Mini was the target, so be it.

  “Sit down, Mini,” Eisha’s silky voice stopped the mage in her tracks.

  “That was my favorite knife, you bastard!”

  “Shouldn’t have thrown it at my head.”

  “Teagan, we trusted you,” Eisha interrupted. “We couldn’t even sense Jade. Where did you go?”

  “It’s not his fault. Teagan wanted to come speak with you, it was me. I convinced him to leave,” Jade said.

  “Jade, we decided together,” I said. “We went to see my aunt. I had to know about my family.”

  Eisha looked as though she might shift by the way her lips curled. “You left Wyvern Willows?”

  “Yes,” Jade answered for the both of us. “And you’ll be interested to know we have learned a great deal.”

  “Were you followed?” Sapphire rushed toward the window.

  “Followed?” I asked.

  “Were you?” he asked again, voice a low growl. “Leaving the protection of the willow is dangerous and foolish.”

  “We weren’t followed,” Jade insisted. “I protected the car.” Both Eisha and Sapphire noticeably relaxed. “Surprising, I know, but I can problem solve through difficult decisions.”

  “Jade, we have confidence you can make decisions,” Sapphire said.

  “No, you don’t,” she snapped. “I’m a young queen, I realize this. But it is time I take my place. The willow warned me of changes and no one listened. Then the zomok came, the mages returned. I still feel something is coming. I know leaving was risky, but we needed insight. Now we have an idea about whom we could be dealing with because we took the risk.”

  Eisha seemed as though she wanted to say something, but thought better of it. I glanced at Mini, who muttered angrily as she scooped up the last of her knife dust.

  Sapphire leaned forward, his focus jumping between me and Jade. “You’re right, Jade. It’s time. Teagan is growing more capable by the hour, as are you. Tell us what you learned.”

  Jade nudged my elbow, giving me the floor to explain about my aunt’s story. Mini stopped scooping the dust and listened when I spoke of the letter. Thankfully, Jade brought the shoebox and held up the paper to prove what we said. The quilt drew all their interests, even Eisha dropped her icy wall and studied the design.

  “Jade has a theory about my parents,” I said, hating the idea.

  “I believe Teagan is the son of the High Priestess and High Priest.”

  Mini closed her eyes and slid down the wall until her knees were pulled against her body. “I don’t know how that’s possible, yet I don’t know how you can’t be connected. The quilt, Jade is right, it’s the seal of the jade family. But the markings on the outer rim, those are unique. It’s not a mage crest, nor is it a wyvern crest. The only one who would even come close to a crest of the jade bloodline is the High Priestess.

  “The High Priest lost his connection to the crest when he betrayed the family. Teagan, I know the High Priestess didn’t have a child during the war. As royal bloodline mages, we are close. I was close with the High Priestess. You would’ve been born after the war. She fought against the High Priest—her own partner. So, why would she join with him again?”

  “Well, the High Priest joined Nag, would it be so far off to think the High Priestess would turn too?” I asked.

  Mini seemed as though she were about to be sick. “I can’t . . . I can’t believe that. I knew her.”

  “You knew them both, Mini,” Sapphire said, gentler than I would have.

  Mini nodded. “I did know the High Priest. Well, what should we do, Your Majesties?” She said the words with a new respect.

  Jade’s palm rested gently on my thigh, and she didn’t seem the least bit concerned. She was a marvel. “We stand against them. We protect the stones as always. They are still well hidden, but if any royals fall to Nag, the stones’ location will be easier to find.”

  She rose from the sofa. In all the time we’d spoken I had never thought of the actual stones. I knew they were powerful, and Nag could destroy anything he wanted if he had access to the elemental stones. But I never considered they weren’t with the actual royals.

  “I will reach out to the other royals,” Jade went on. “Mini, we need your help assembling the mages—only those you trust with your life. Tell them the call to defend the wyverns has risen again. If the High Priest and High Priestess have joined with King Nag, it’s only a matter of time before they learn where we are. The willow’s strength is fading and if they want Teagan, with his new strength, it’s possible they will sense him.”
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  “They won’t need to sense him. The High Priestess knows where Wyvern Willows is,” Eisha said coldly. “She’s the one who fueled the willow.”

  A shiver spread down my spine. A zomok had come inside the willows and attacked after I’d arrived. I wasn’t exactly subtle about using my abilities. Something told me it was only a matter of time before I brought more danger to the place.

  As fate would have it, the moment the thought passed through my mind was the moment life would never be the same.

  In a whirlwind, the windows of the house crashed in shards of glass. Lightbulbs combusted and cast the house in a thick blackness.

  My arm wrapped around Jade; I covered her with my own body against the flying debris. Eisha snarled, and the ground shifted when her body peeled back into her massive dark scales. Mini blocked Sapphire, who ripped a jagged shard of glass from his bicep. She gripped a longsword that appeared with her armor.

  Then the sound that chilled my blood until it was frozen in my veins filled the night sky. Aunt Liz, she screamed my name, a strained desperate gurgle, as though someone were choking her. I jumped to my feet and faced the shattered window. The burn of my armor spread around my arms. My back ached as the seal bubbled beneath my shirt.

  A man, dressed in the blackest black, stood out on the lawn. His face was made of sharp lines and angles. Young, but villainously cunning.

  Even from the distance, I knew he stared straight at me. Along the edges of his face were armor markings, but instead of green they were dark as pitch.

  My body trembled in a boiling fury. Behind the man a row of zomoks slithered in the grass. But a few coiled their slender bodies around Aunt Liz. I’d just seen her, healthy, baking cookies. She screamed and whipped her wild eyes around, trying to make sense of it all.

  “Ah, the new mage,” the man said. His voice was like glass, sharp and smooth. “I’ve so wanted to meet you. Unwise to step out of your protection for it made you all too easy to find, Teagan.”